occurrence
Americannoun
-
occurrences
plural
-
the action, fact, or instance of occurring.
-
something that happens; event; incident.
We were delayed by several unexpected occurrences.
- Synonyms:
- circumstance
noun
-
something that occurs; a happening; event
-
the act or an instance of occurring
a crime of frequent occurrence
Synonym Usage
See event.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of occurrence
1530–40; < Latin occurrent-, stem of occurrēns (present participle of occurrere “to run up to, run to meet”), from oc- (variant of ob- ; see ob- ( def. )) + currere “to run” + -ence; compare Medieval Latin occurrentia
Explanation
An occurrence is an instance of something or a time when something happens. If you get migraines, the doctor might ask how many occurrences of the headache you have in a month. An occurrence is an instance of something that happens repeatedly. The occurrence of Lyme disease is more frequent in New England than it is in other parts of the country. As soon as authorities see an occurrence of rabies, they send warnings out to people who live in the area. Sometimes though, an occurrence is a single event or an incident. If you and your friend saw a ghost in the cemetery, that would be quite an occurrence!
Vocabulary lists containing occurrence
Make a Run for It: Cur, Curs
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Commonly Misspelled Words, List 4
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Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
What happened to your friend is an all-too-common occurrence, and Medicare can foot the cost for necessary inpatient rehab, as long as its eligibility requirements are met.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
Last month, anglers spotted a giant whale shark swimming off Malibu and Santa Barbara Island, a rare occurrence probably driven by warmer waters from El Niño.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 4, 2026
“The Swan” was not a singular occurrence, then, but part of an era hawking cosmetic improvement, whether surgical or noninvasive, as the key to succeeding at life.
From Salon ● Oct. 1, 2026
This time, however, the threat came from inside the cockpit itself, an extremely rare occurrence.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
I tried sending to Estraven while he slept, recalling what my Educer had told me about the occurrence of “dream-messages” among pre-telepathic peoples, but it did not work.
From "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin
Such occurrences are mostly visible near the Arctic Circle and northern Scotland, but particularly strong activity levels meant they could be seen as far south as Devon, Hampshire and Kent on Saturday night.
From BBC ● Oct. 10, 2026
The president said he had "directed the Nigerian Air Force to immediately commence a thorough investigation into the cause of the crash to prevent future occurrences".
From Barron's ● Oct. 5, 2026
No sooner does a lost flashlight she loved as a girl mysteriously reappear than Gemma’s nights suddenly start filling with creepy occurrences.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
Profit growth has also been unusually high, in large part due to one-off occurrences.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 9, 2026
In English, apart from a couple of occurrences in a text of 1589, ‘scientific’ does not appear until 1637, after which date it becomes increasingly common.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
